You Called Me Chase
by Swa-Sa Masou
Summary: Allison and Robert have a lot to discuss. Post-Dibala, pre-divorce that shouldn't have happened.


_**A/N: Chase and Cameron should have been endgame. You will never convince me otherwise. This is set when Chase is being all shady and Cameron thinks he's having an affair. This starts when they finish investigating the man Cameron thinks is having an affair with their patient.**_

"I still think he did it." Dr. Allison Cameron had her hands shoved deep in her pockets as she and her husband/partner in this case walked back toward the car. She was upset with Robert, she was upset with House for pairing them up on this when he knew, he _knew_ they were having marital troubles, and she was taking out on someone who could be completely innocent of having anything to do with their patient.

Walking next to her, Dr. Chase to everyone else, and Robert to only her, her husband, slowed. "You think he did it? You never think the married man did it. Even when it's clear as day to everyone else involved, you always keep faith that the married man is staying faithful to his wife. What's going on? What did you see?" they approached the car from different sides and she was waiting on him to hit the unlock button so she could get in, though she wasn't exactly relishing being in such a confined space with her husband. This thought made her stomach roll. She should never have these thoughts about the man she married; the man she loves.

He was looking over the roof of the car at her, clearly in no hurry to get back to the hospital. She set her hand on the roof and rested her chin on top of it. "I don't know, it's just a feeling I have. Some men just really aren't trustworthy. Maybe I'm just joining the rest of you and seeing things realistically. My first marriage was so short, I guess I wanted to believe that all of them stayed sweet and full of devotion to one another. She dropped her eyes to the pavement as she heard him wordlessly click open the car doors. She slid in and buckled her seatbelt, waiting for him to do the same.

When he finally joined her in the car, he didn't put the key in the ignition right away or fasten his own belt. He sighed deeply, "This isn't about him at all is it?"

Allison groaned in frustration. She really just wanted to get back to their patient, run more tests and get this girl out of their hair. "Of course, it is Chase!" She flung her hands up, gesturing along with her words, "What else would it be about?"

He caught her left hand on its downward swing. "You called me Chase." His voice was dull. There wasn't a question or an accusation in it, it just was.

"Robert. I meant Robert. We knew each other for years and only called each other by our surnames. It's bound to slip through once in a while! Now we have a patient sitting in the hospital waiting for us to get back and save her." She wrenched her hand from his and crossed them across her chest.

His voice still in that dull tone, but softer this time, drifted across the car, "This isn't about him, or about our patient. You think I'm having an affair, don't you?"

Allison didn't respond, she just turned to stare out the window. "Ali, please, I deserve an answer to that!"

"Robert! Just go. Okay? Just go, we'll talk at home. Please." She propped her head up on her right hand as she leaned against the glass and shut her eyes. She prayed that he would just start the car and start driving. For once, he did. She felt the engine turn over and her stomach lurched when the car shifted in to gear. She just had to get through this shift.

* * *

What felt like an entire week later, but was really just the rest of the standard 18-hour shift for the two of them, they climbed back into the car. Allison could tell that he was about the broach their earlier subject more than once in the car, but he evidently thought better of it. She bolted from the car as soon as he parked it and all but ran for the front door. She didn't know why. It wasn't as if their shared house, shared bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom, bed even, was going to offer her an escape from him.

She stepped out of her heels and she could hear him hanging up his coat behind her. She stretched, hands high above her head, "Well, I think I'm going to go run a ba-"

Robert cut her off, "Allison, we have to talk. I've been going crazy since we left the hotel. We're home now, don't go hide from me." She nodded once and changed direction for their couch instead of the bathroom. He followed her lead as they sat down on opposite ends of the sofa. They sat in silence for a few moments, each clearly hoping that the other would start the conversation.

Robert was the first to break the silence, "So, you think I'm cheating on you."

Allison had drawn her legs up underneath her and was leaning away from him into the armrest. It wasn't that she was afraid of him. She never could be. This just was not a conversation she thought she would ever be having and she didn't know what to say. "I never said that, Robert."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him lean forward and drop his head into his hands. "You didn't have to Ali, it's been written all over your actions all day. Longer if I stop to think about it. Just, when you didn't come to that man's defense, I fully realized it."

Still curled in her defensive ball, Allison, barely audibly, squeaked out, "I don't think you're cheating, necessarily. I just," She ran her hand through her hair, letting it fall back down in a mess of soft, blonde curls, "I don't know what to think." She felt deflated. She felt like she would rather be back at the hospital facing House's verbal abuse rather than slogging through this conversation with her husband.

Robert scooched over and leaned across the rest of the couch to place a hand on her knee. "How about you ask me, and I'll answer so you can stop thinking the worst of me?"

Her anger flared up, she shoved his hand off of her knee and jumped to her feet. "Ask you? I wonder why I didn't think of that simple solution! Except I have, Rob, I have! More than once. I kept getting 'don't worry about it,' 'I'll be fine,' and my personal favorite, 'I just had to get really drunk and now I'm fine.' What the hell kind of comfort is that supposed to be to me?" She was breathing rapidly by this point and sank back down to the couch, covering her face with her hands as she held back the tears.

She knew that their marriage was in a rocky spot, but she didn't know how to fix it. After weeks of trying to reach out to him, trying to break through, trying to figure out what he could be hiding without jumping to the worst conclusion, she was tired. Tired. Spent. Done. He was either going to open up or not. There was nothing more she could do.

It was his turn to stand. There was nothing left in him either. It was clear enough from his stance. He moved over to the window. He started knocking his hand gently on the window frame, but it seemed to be more of a nervous gesture than anything else. Finally, he turned around her face his wife. "It was never meant to be your burden. I didn't want to make it your problem." With quick strides, he landed back on their couch, sitting so close that their thighs touched and he clasped both of her hands. He ran his thumb over her engagement and wedding rings before meeting her eyes.

"Before I say anything else, I need to know that you believe me. I've always been faithful to you. I've been in love with you for years, longer than you've been in love with me. Any time that I've been a complete arse to you, and I know it's happened more frequently than I ever wanted it to, it's been because I thought it was for the best. I love you and I never want to hurt you. Please, say that you believe me." His eyes were shimmering with tears and she wasn't surprised to realize that some of her own were making tracks down her own face.

Allison move one of her hands out of his grasp and wiped away the lone tear that had spilled over onto her husband's cheek. "I love you too. If you say so, then I believe you. I just wish you would tell me what's been going on."

Chase looked back down at their ring fingers, each proudly wearing the gleaming rings of their promise to one another. Would she remove hers after hearing this? "We lose patients sometimes. One of those patients, Dibala, we didn't actually lose. I- I killed him." It was more terrifying to meet her eyes than it had been to know that he could lose his medical license and face prison because of this action. This could take away her love for him. She was obviously shocked.

She pulled away her hand and just stared at him. He didn't try to reach for her hand again, what was the point? "What do you mean you killed him? You killed him, killed him? You made a mistake, right? You meant to do something and made a mistake that ended up killing him?"

He put his head in his hands. She was trying to rationalize what he was confessing. She didn't want to think he was capable of this. "No, I mean I knew what I was doing would kill him and I did it anyway. Once he was dead, I used evidence from another dead body to fake some tests and make it seem like I had made the right call and he just ended up dead anyway. It was planned, it was deliberate. House and Foreman both figured it out. There's no way I can say it was an honest mistake if there's ever an investigation. I wanted to save you from knowing this. Both to protect you from hearing this and to protect you legally."

"Chase-"

He cut her off again, "you called me Chase again." He gave her a sad smile. He knew this was worse than an affair. He knew that this wasn't something she would get over easily, if ever.

She clasped their hands again, interlocking their fingers of their left hands so that the metal of their rings clinked together. "Robert. I don't know what to say. I considered doing it and you stopped me. How did you switch to being willing to do it instead? I know he was an evil person, but-"

As she trailed off, Robert picked it up, "I know. There's nothing I can say to make it okay. I did stop you, and then, as we heard more of what he said, I guess I believed it was worth it. I've gone to bars, to a priest, and to our immoral pig of a boss for absolution. None of them would give it to me. I don't expect you to either. Even with all of that, even with the possible consequences, I would still do it again. I still think he needed to be stopped and I had the opportunity to do it."

Allison raised their locked hands up to her mouth to place a soft kiss on the back of his hand. "I'm sorry, that I thought you were having an affair. I'm sorry that you didn't feel like you could share this with me before. But I love you and wherever we go from here, we'll go together." She leaned into her husband's chest and the two stayed on the couch until they silently decided it was time to drift off to bed. Tomorrow would be a new day.


End file.
